It’s a way of de-risking the hits-driven nature of the gaming business by relying on outside creative content. At the same time, these companies promise indie developers greater reach and traction than they might have by going it alone. Marketing costs for games have gone dramatically over the last two years and the biggest mobile developers routinely spend several million dollars on marketing every month.

Chou didn’t reveal specifics about the specific revenue share that Kabam would take except to say that it would be less than 30 percent. It sounds like the benefits are pretty standard for any porting or publishing program; Kabam will help out with localization and marketing. The company will also provide tracking analytics that will help developers monitor user acquisition and retention.